Paris Drops Appeal, Jail Awaits

Thu., May. 17, 2007 2:14 PM PDT by Gina Serpe

Paris Hilton did the crime, and yes, she's going to do the time.

The Simple Life star has dropped her appeal of a 45-day jail sentence handed down earlier this month after she was found in violation of her probation for alcohol-related reckless driving.

Attorney Richard Hutton filed the abandonment of appeal Thursday on the heiress' request, according to court documents obtained by E! News. (View the new court filing as a PDF file.)

The decision to take her punishment without a fight is an abrupt about-face from Team Hilton's initial reaction but is in keeping with the socialite and her camp's newfound contriteness.

Just hours after she was sentenced on May 4 for driving with a suspended license, Hilton's original lawyer, Howard Weitzman, filed the appeal, calling Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer's 45-day sentence imposition "inappropriate" and "ludicrous." Her mother, Kathy Hilton, termed the order "pathetic and disgusting," "a waste of taxpayer money" and "a joke."

Speaking to photographers camped outside her home the following day, Paris Hilton railed against the perceived injustice, claiming she was targeted because of her celebrity and that her court-ordered jail stay, to be served in the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, California, was "both cruel and unwarranted."

Hilton even went so far as to urge supporters of her plight to sign a petition seeking a pardon by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. But by last week, she had hired Hutton to take over the case and immediately toned down the woe-is-me rhetoric.

In a statement released through Hutton on May 9, Hilton said that "no one is above the law. I surely am not."

"I am ready to face the consequences of violating probation."

Perhaps making the judgment easier to swallow is the fact that she will only serve about half the time.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore announced that Hilton, 26, would serve just 23 days, owing to the heiress' good behavior in advance of her incarceration.

Whitmore credited Hilton with showing up for her court date as one of the reasons for officials to dock her jail time. Whitmore made the announcement to clarify concerns that the Simple Life star might serve just hours of her sentence or even be turned away entirely due to an overcrowded facility.

Whitmore said that Hilton had been earmarked for a "special needs housing unit" at the detention center, for which inmate overcrowding is not a concern. The socialite will be kept in a 12-cell unit that is separated from the general population and is reserved for celebrities, public officials and other high-profile figures.

Apparently, the new accommodations were enough for Hilton to accept.

With no more appeals pending and Schwarzenegger saying he was "too busy" to consider any pardon, Hilton must turn herself in to the detention center by June 5 to begin serving her time.